St George results looks at positives
St George Bank has preferred to point to a 6.2 per cent increase in cash profit to $602 million for the half year ended March 31 than a 10.1 per cent decline in net profit to $514 million when releasing its six month result to the Australian Securities Exchange today.
However, what was clear from the St George result was that it had been impacted by the ongoing market volatility, with its wealth management division amongst those taking a relatively heavy hit.
Despite the ongoing volatility in the market, the bank today foreshadowed a major restructuring program that it said would lead to substantial improvements in efficiencies.
Commenting on the result, St George chairman John Curtis said it represented a strong result, notwithstanding the very challenging external environment, while the bank’s managing director and chief executive officer, Paul Fegan, said the underlying performance was excellent and the financial position of the group had been strengthened.
Looking specifically at wealth management, the bank’s analysis said that despite equity markets experiencing negative growth of 19.1 per cent since October 2007, total managed funds of $43.9 billion were only marginally down on the balances of a year earlier, with net inflows strong relative to other participants in the market.
However, it said there had been a significant impact on the margin lending business, with margin lending receivables $2.5 billion compared to $3 billion a year earlier.
The bank said the recruiting campaigns for the Securitor financial planning group and St George Financial Planning delivered an 11.4 per cent increase across both businesses, with the number of authorised representatives in licensee services also increasing by 8.5 per cent.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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